Unit 18 – P2, M2 & D1

In this assignment I will be explaining the changes in demand for facilities and services in UK rural areas. I will then explain how two rural areas are responding to changes in demand for tourism facilities and services. Finally I will analyse how the two areas are responding to changing demands for tourism facilities and services, making recommendations for how one rural area could expand it’s activities, facilities and services to broaden its appeal. 

Demand for facilities 
Different types of visits:
There are different kinds of visit to rural areas such as short breaks, day trips, staying in the UK, work related visits, educational trips.
Educational trips are when geography students come to learn about the surrounding area. 
Short breaks are when people come or weekends or longer weekends (including the Friday and the Monday). 
Day trips could just be going down to a beach which is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty such as the Norfolk Broads. 

Different types of accommodation – B&B’s, Farms and hotels
Visitors to rural areas expect different types of accommodation to choose from as not everyone has the same expectations from a place of where they are staying, some people want a full english breakfast, first class service and high end/branded products in the bathroom. Everyone expects different things from their stay so rural areas are having to build more accommodation types to keep up with the demand for accommodation. 

Different types of hospitality – Cafes, restaurants and pubs
There is demand for different types of hospitality as more people want something to eat and drink whilst visiting the rural area. Having places to eat reduces litter as people do not need to make up a picnic and leave the rubbish when they can go in to a café or a pub and eat there without the hassle of preparing and making the food. 

Activity centres — paint-balling and water sports
As more work places are having team building days/time away to help all of their employees get along meaning they travel out to rural areas as there is a bigger area to do activities and stay over at the same time. 

Attractions – heritage and cultural
As the areas are rural, the attractions are natural meaning they have helped form the rural tourist area. The area why have history and cultural about past lives and how they fended for their own. As more people are having holidays in the UK, children may expect man made attractions to enjoy whilst they are on their holiday and may get bored when viewing the historical attractions. 

Provision for special interest tourism — painting and wildlife
Painting in rural areas is very popular because it creates great masterpieces for budding and well experienced artists and for people who paint and sketch as a hobby.

Demand for services: 

Provision for specific needs — sensory trails and wheelchair access
As lots of people have special and specific needs, it means rural areas need to make the surrounding areas more accessible and people can get to the areas and around. Having disabled spaces in car parks mean people with wheelchairs and people who cannot 
walk far can walk a little around the area as they disabled spaces are as close as possible to the entrance.

Transport – provision of carparks and public transport
Some rural areas are only accessible by driving and other areas you can park away and either get public transport in or use the park and ride scheme. 

Retail – Crafts and local produce 
Most rural attractions have a shop to buy souvenirs from the attraction and they may also sell local produce such as meat or jam, basically anything locally sourced will be sold in the shops. 

Educational services and information  — guided walks, marked trails, visitor centres and information boards
Educational information is important for the rural areas to keep getting tourists back and aware of the area. Having guided walks and marked out trails are the best way for visitors to explore the rural areas and learn on their own rather than searching it on the computer. Visitor centres help people to learn about the location and what there is to do there. 

Changes in demand: 

Changing working patterns
Different working patterns means more people get different working days and days off compared to others.Some people may get a long weekend of so spend it with family and friends going to a rural are in the UK. Public service workers for example work around three days and have four days off, this allows them to visit the areas when it is not as busy and they get a different feel for it.

Increased popularity of short breaks
More and more people are having shorter holidays and are taking them in the UK. Many people may use bank holidays as a great way to have a break away from home as everyone is off at the same time making plans easy to create and give more money to the tourism part of the economy. 

Environmental awareness 
There is an increase of people wanting to help the area they are going to visit, have or been to. When having the trip to the rural area they may learn about the place they have been to and want to help protect the future of the area.

The recession
When the recession hit in 2009, the first thing that everyone cut down on the amount holidays they had or not have one for many years. When people started having holidays again, they started having holidays in the UK and mainly going to rural areas such as the national parks (especially the Lake District) and some Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty like as Devon and Cornwall.

An increase in special interest and adventure tourism
More people like to have a holiday where they learn about something from the holiday and come back knowing something new and may change the way they think and their actions and the following consequences that could affect the rural areas in the futures and the lack of sustainable resources.

The weak pound
When the pound is weak, it means it is cheaper for people to have holidays in the UK rather than travelling to Europe. Also, holidaymakers from outside of the UK for example people from Europe and the USA will spend more as they benefit from the weak pound. This also helps the rural areas as when there’s lots of tourists in the area and a weak pound, people are more likely to spend more money.

New and old legislations affect the changes in demand as people may not want to book a package holiday to abroad. There is a package holiday legislation and some people may believe that it is not worth the risk of booking of booking a package holiday (flights, hotels and transfer). So more people likely to have a holiday in the UK and mainly go to national parks and coastal areas
Technology has made the rural areas change in three ways. 
  1. National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty have created websites to make tourists aware of their location, what is on offer and how to protect the area. The website lets people to see if the rural area  is what they are looking for in a holiday 
  2. People are wanting Wi-Fi when at the parks as more people are taking smart phones and other electronic devices on holidays to stay in contact with friends and family back home and to also post on social media.
  3. The last technology impact is it allows people to book holidays online which lets people find the cheapest deals out there meaning some of the hospitality providers may lose out on bookings if they are not online as some customers may be online.
In this part of the assignment give examples of how Lake District and Dorset  are changing and developing to meet the changing demands. I will give some recommendations for Lake District to expand it’s activities, facilities and services to get more different types of customers.  

Rural area one: Lake District 

As more people are having different days off and may only get two weeks of annual year meaning people have no work out how to get the most of their time off, for example in 2011 for William and Kate’s wedding. 
B&B’s have reduced prices of the rooms in order to get more customers rather than them going to other places as they need to fight for competition. However, in 2011, 63% of people  on longer trips went self catering as they can cook on their own rather than going to local pubs and cafes paying out every-time for a meal and they would rather go to the nearby supermarket and do a massive shop if staying for a long stay and fill up the accommodation where they are staying. There is a new cafe located on the main road in Windermere and the main aim e is to use local produce to serve brunches, lunches and coffees, even they are going to make their own sauces  and jams. Having the cafe in that location is ideal as there an extreme call for it as there is nowhere else nearby. Tourists are also passing so there will always be a constant turnover of new customers as well as the local residents. In 2012, Ambleside made a treetop adventure for people over the age of 16. A company has turned some of the national park into a climbing place for teenagers and adventure seekers. In Lake District there is park and ride schemes which were introduced as a traffic calming measure. The car parks are situated outside and around the outskirts of the national park. There are many information centres situated within the Lake District National Park and within the centres there is free WiFi, a service to book accommodation, information for nearby attractions and a shop to buy gifts and souvenirs. This helps the tourists when coming to the national park as it makes it easy for visitors to choose where to stay and visit whilst in the area without having to research it their-selves.  There are different types of learning about the Lake District National Park, some walks are to learn about the secret little areas of the national park where others do not know about. Other walks are based on a certain subject to learn about such as farming or navigation. The navigation walk is a popular way to learn as it helps people develop  a much needed life skill that will stay with them forever. More people like to shop whilst they are on holiday whether it be food or souvenirs, the money goes to the local government. In the rural area you can buy cheese,  meat, beer, wine and chocolate which are all produced in the local surrounding areas. More people are wanting a different holiday, instead of a two week sunny stay in a Spanish destination they would rather go on a short holiday where they can take or draw pictures of what they have seen. They would also like to learn how they can help keep the rural area sustainable and be environmentally friendly as possible.

Recommendations on how activities, facilities and services could be expanded to broaden its appeal.

Different ways of travelling to and around the national park

There are currently five different ways to travelling to Lake District and that is by a train, local bus, flying into the nearby airport, travelling by car and lift-share. 
The local council is trying to promote the lift share option to all of the visiting and to be visiting tourists. This sharing of car rides is to help split the cost of travelling (petrol and parking), it also lets people have a companion in the  car and not have a boring lonely drive for six hours. The website/app is free to download and register as it is helping the environment by not having cars on the road that are not needed. A good way to improve the National Park is by having a free shuttle bus to and from each lake and attraction to save people walking and driving and this will help the environment.

Have exercise classes on in the park to get people to be healthy
A great way to make people exercise whilst visiting the national park is to offer interesting and active classes. I have come up with eight classes people can do outdoors or indoors if the weather is not good. The classes are:
  1. Yoga
  2. Hula Hooping
  3. Pilates
  4. Running Club
  5. Body Attack
  6. Circuits
  7. BoxFit
  8. Strike-fit (boot camp style)
All of these are great ways to help pump blood around the body and get people to be active 
Create more ways to teach people about the environment and how to protect it 
The national park could set up more trips and walks to learn about the environment:
  • There can be a walking route/educational talk up to Eskdale where you can learn about upland farming and also the life process of sheep (what they do in each months)
  • To help with climate change and stop contributing to the O-Zone layer. The walking tour could include visiting places in the national park which could be affected in the future by the climate change and the habitats that could be destroyed. Another way the rangers could get the visitors attention is by having a speech and watching a presentation where they would find out how over a long period of timescale, the Lake District would dramatically change due to peoples effect 
Help the locals by using tourism to help the local economy and boost tourism numbers.

If all of the money tourists spend went to the local businesses they would be fine about the tourists and the visitors. However if they shop in branded places such as Sainsbury’s, Co-op or even high street clothes shop names and they book the holiday through a travel agent. The money which was spent goes straight in the businesses pockets and does not benefit the national park or the locals. Lake District should promote to tourists that people should book with a local B&B rather than booking through Trivago, when shopping for food if they are staying in self catering accommodation tourists should try to buy in locally produced food and home grown. This way there is no leakage in the economy and benefits the local economy rather than the big chain businesses.
Rural area two: Dorset 
As more people are having different days off and may only get two weeks of annual year meaning people have no work out how to get the most of their time off, Every bank holiday there is people are wanting to take a short break in the UK rather then flying somewhere. A popular location is Dorset as it as an ideal seaside location with any things to do there as people are always demanding more of the place and has a good climate compared to other coastal areas in the UK.  The most popular kind of accommodation for people staying in Dorset is in Holiday Cottages as it has a homely feeling and is more bigger than a hotel room,  the cottages are also beneficial for people who want to bring their dogs away with them.  There are 35 Cafés and tea rooms in Dorset and some restaurant and local pubs for visitors to enjoy. The Jurassic coast is a well known heritage attraction as people can have a lazy day by the coast or you can learn about when the dinosaurs was around. There are also tours which related to the demand for educational services as you and discover some prehistoric fossils when the cliffs were formed around 185 million years ago. More people are going to Dorset for different time lengths. Some may go for bank holidays, one or two weeks in the summer holidays and  other people may go for business purposes and visit an attraction or the coastline after work or during a break in a conference.